A Roman fresco exhibited in Alexandria, Egypt
A fresco found in Alexandria in 1960 illustrates one of the worlds' oldest machines. It was found in a necropolis but its dating presents a puzzle to scholars.
Probably the artist made his fresco at a time between 100 B.C. and 100 A.D.. The Romans and the Greeks worked with two sets of machine designs. The first category belongs to those we will call ingenious toys. The other category was different sorts of "mills". They were very rare. The watermill was almost unknown and the noria was a new invention. The fresco from Alexandria is our first record of the water-lifting wheel. The fresco is in the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, Egypt. Photo Th.Schiöler 1964.
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Photo collection by Th.Schiöler 
